vendredi 19 août 2016

This Canepa Porsche 959 makes 763 Horsepower

It’s 1988, and Bruce Canepa has just bought a Porsche 959.
But it’s not all fireworks, burnouts, and four-wheel drifts, because
the now-legendary 959 was never federalized for the United States. What
to do? 11 years later, by 1999, Canepa (an already seasoned racer and
now California-based resto-mod guru) had helped fellow 959ers Bill Gates
and Paul Allen lobby Congress to pass the Show or Display amendment.
The rule change would allow certain vehicles of historical or
technological significance to be imported and driven on U.S. roads. The
rub, of course, was making the vehicle emissions-legal with the
performance upgrades Canepa had in mind.
Challenges, however, tend
to breed innovation. Two generations later, Canepa’s own Porsche 959,
first of the so-called Gen III cars he’ll build, is churning out
dastardly 763 hp. But it’s not raw power that makes this 959 so wicked,
as much as it is a complete holistic approach to relentlessly improving
performance on every front.
Courtesy of a new parallel twin-turbo
system featuring Borg-Warner turbos with integrated wastegates and
titanium heat shields, an updated fuel system, ECU, exhaust system, and
clutch system, the pinnacle of Canepa’s 959 tuning saga now makes 763 hp
and 635 lb-ft of torque from its flat-six engine. The added power is
matched with an 959 Sport-spec suspension with titanium coilovers,
replacing the famed automatically adjustable suspension that came from
the factory on the 959 Komfort. The Gen III also uses revised magnesium
wheels, modified with a new bead design to accommodate modern
high-performance tires for improved grip.

According to Canepa, the upgrades make this specially tuned 959
capable of rowdy 2.4-second sprints from 0-60 mph. The Gen I and Gen II
versions made 576 hp and 640 hp, respectively, and the Gen II had a top
speed of 223 mph. The folks Canepa say Gen III will clear 230 mph. In a
car from 1988.
That same level of attention to detail is executed
on the interior, which has been fully restored in-house. The gorgeous
chestnut-colored interior incorporates all-new leather, new carpets, a
hand-sewn steering wheel, and custom floor mats. Everything looks
simple, tasteful, and functional.
As you might expect though,
Canepa’s services don’t come cheap. Expect to pay a few hundred thousand
bucks on top of the cost of your donor 959, which can run between $1
and $2 million. Check out Canepa’s website for more of his eclectic restoration and tuning projects.